Mumbai’s indie music scene knocked itself awake from its state of dormancy with Control Alt Delete‘s third edition seeing some of the most prolific nonmetal (or unmetal, as they call it) acts play to an eager crowd that packed the newly acquired venue. Two of the acts stood out more than the others because of the nature of their music and the zest with which they delivered it.
Microphon3, the second act of the evening, was a revelation. With an all-star backing – Niraj Haresh Trivedi on drums, Romit Ranjan Gupta on bass, and Venkat Raman on guitar – frontman Microphon3 enthralled the people to a set of Indian hip-hop/rhythm-and-poetry in English, Hindi and Marathi.
The Riot Peddlers played right after, and as expected, took the energy level very high. The mosh pit became active as the hardcore punk band raced through all their hits (in other words, all their songs) and the people who’d been tripping on their smashing debut Sarkarsm were in for a treat.
It’s extremely cool to get to see the drummers – looks at the pics and you’ll see the drummers not lost in the background for a change, but the show stealer for this member of the audience was organizer Rishu Singh. I think everybody had a blast watching Rishu make announcements and threaten the sound guy with dire consequences and urge the people to consume illicit liquor. At some point, the ennui.BOMB boss let all the bands know who was in charge and even hurled abuses at the speechless crowd. It smells like saunf, he observed about about the desi daaru, but conveniently forgot to mention that it wasn’t for the saunf-hearted.
The venue, by the way, kicks major ass. I don’t know what its called, but it is the best venue I have been to since Razzberry Rhinoceros. In fact, this place looks perfect for underground shows and I can’t wait to check out some extreme metal bands here, but I’m content even now to know the indie music scene is anything but stagnant. The cult is alive.
Mehta Kya Kehta? 